


Ritual

by echoist



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (TV)
Genre: AU, Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-27
Updated: 2012-01-27
Packaged: 2017-10-30 04:53:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/327955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/echoist/pseuds/echoist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It didn't end this way, but it could have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ritual

Rei sends the children home. A pat on the head, keep up the good work. A kind, but weary smile. When the day is at an end, she is glad to be alone. The quiet eddies like dust before her broom and she rakes the cobblestones clean.

When the moon is full, it dogs her steps, nips at her ankles and follows along behind. It is inescapable, and she pulls a blanket over her head to block out the stray illumination. She wants to sink straight through the mat, curl up under the floorboards and rest where it is dark and still. The light invades. It pools in the hollows places; it stagnates, it bleeds.

Tonight, the darkness breathes, uncoils and stretches like a cat set free to roam. She crouches before the hearth and rekindles the sacred fire, hands sure and steady in the gloom. She breathes, quick and fierce across the embers, coaxing them back to life. The rusted edge of a blade cuts sharp across her palm then joins its mate before the fire.

She prays aloud with deft fingers and leaves a stain. The moon hides its face.  _Her_  heels sound across the wood and Rei doesn’t turn around. A pale hand rests on Rei’s shoulder, grips it to the bone. She is cold; she is missing.

She will always be here.

Rei stokes the fire against the chill and settles in for the night.


End file.
